Covenant Lower and Middle School Students Compete in Science Fairs

From the youngest grades, Covenant students learn to formulate a testable scientific question, perform research, form a hypothesis, conduct experiments, a write a conclusion. Experiments increase in difficulty as the years go on, and Covenant's Middle School Science Fair winners advance to the Piedmont Regional Science Fair.
Nearly 50 projects from Pre-K - Grade 6 were on display this past Friday at the Lower School STEAM Fair.  A strong showing by all contestants made the judging particularly difficult, but the following projects emerged from the pack as exemplary:

Pre-K - Grade 4
1st Place:  Fulcrum Projects, shared by Grade 3 (Page, Wilke)
2nd Place: Testing Camouflage with Candy, Pre-K (Tolman)
3rd Place:  Is The Size of a Meteorite Related To The Size Of The Crater It Makes On Impact?, Grade 1 (Marks)

Grade 5
1st Place:  The Mint Maniacs, (Lorelei Seiler and Mary Mack Barr)
2nd Place:  The Confidence Project, (Hannah Sumkha and Maddox Crouch)
3rd Place:  A Sweet Situation (Neil Nethula and Will Boersma)

Grade 6
1st Place:  Perfect Pennies, (Grace Wolf)
2nd Place:  What's In Your Water? (Owen Bradley)
3rd Place:  Earthtastic Houses (Owen Burton, Mark Wamhoff, and Matt Ward) 

At the Middle School Science Fair, rows and tables of project display boards filled the auditorium. Our Covenant families, faculty, and community members explored the different projects throughout the afternoon. The Science Fair showcased students’ completed projects and prototypes by more than 80 young scientists. Since it takes several hours to judge the vast body of projects, various presenters and activity stations were set up in the hallways. This year our guests could make slime, talk to a boy scout troop about their rocketry project, learn about birding, fly a drone, complete a puzzle or create with legos, learn how toxins are filtered through a watershed, make a wet mount slide and view it under a microscope.

Our Science Fair is an opportunity for all middle school students to perform extended, independent research on a topic which they have selected. Seventh grade employs the scientific method teaching experimental design with an emphasis on procedures and data collection.  The seventh grader’s projects began with a simple investigative question. Such as one student asked: Is a dog's mouth cleaner than a human's? Surprising answer: It is not.  During the eighth grade year, students design a prototype to address real world problems in our local or global community using the engineering design process.  Eighth grade using the guiding question, “Who, needs what, because why?”  decide on a prototype. This year a student wanted to design a method to remove salt from water for safe drinking.  

As teacher sponsors, Mrs. Feury and Mrs. Green provide guidance for methods and feedback on selections that the students are making along each step of their science fair project. Students are given specific guidelines to follow so that they can complete at the next level. Our winning projects along with eleven other top projects have been invited to compete  in the 37th annual Regional Piedmont Science Fair which will be held March 7 at the JPJ arena.

This year’s winners from the Middle School Science Fair were as follows:
 In 7th Grade -
Third place was claimed by Katelyn Duprey's project: What is the effect of icing color and decoration of a cupcake on people’s choice?
Second Place was taken by Logan Brown and his project testing the effects of thermal pasting on an I3-32220m central processing unit.
First Place goes to Jackson Coppock: What is the effect of different car shapes on the air moving around a vehicle?

And in 8th Grade -
Third place  was claimed by Dorothy Briggs and her project "The Fault with Salt"
Second goes to Preston Hutter with his creation of the "Finsert!"
First place was taken by Pauline Gineste with her project called "No Plug? No Problem!"

Finally our top winner of the night was
8th grader Caroline Booker's project "Scooping Up a Solution to Stall Cleaning Issues"
The Covenant School Piedmont Regional Participants

7th Grade (7 projects)
Katelyn Duprey's: What is the effect of icing color and decoration of a cupcake on people’s choice?
Logan Brown: The effects of thermal pasting on an I3-32220m central processing unit


8th Grade:(8 projects)
Dorothy Briggs:  The Fault with Salt
Preston Hutter: Finsert
Pauline Gineste: No Plug? No Problem!
Caroline Booker: Scooping Up a Solution to Stall Cleaning Issues
Matthew Knowles: Moving Made Easy
Seth Sexton Regional:   Parabola Paradox
Charlotte Caldejon:  Keep Dancing on Pointé
Gabi Walicek: Let it Shine





 
 
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The Covenant School

Birdwood Campus | Lower School | Pre-K–Grade 5 |
1000 Birdwood Road Charlottesville, VA 22903 | 434.220.7309

Hickory Campus | Middle and Upper School | Grades 6–12 | 175 Hickory Street Charlottesville, VA 22902 | 434.220.7329
Located in Charlottesville, VA, The Covenant School is a non-denominational, private, Christian day school for Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12. Students benefit from a challenging academic program, visual and performing arts, competitive athletics, and a wide selection of extracurricular activities.
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